EDITORIAL

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to November! In today’s

newsletter, you’ll find something out

about this year’s Iron Bunny contest,

which, as usual, was an awesome

event with a great atmosphere. This

year, the teams built a Mustang.

That was no real shock to anyone,

but given that what was anticipated

in past years was not always realised, there was still an element of

doubt. But, it happened. Building

the Eduard Mustang in 24 hours,

albeit without an engine, which is

not yet available, is a major sporting feat, one that was put forth by all

eight teams. Just as E-day, this year’s

Iron Bunny is a big challenge for next

year’s event, and this year’s contest

will be tough to beat. Having already mentioned E-day, I would like to

say that I am toying more and more

with the idea that maybe, after all,

there should be some tweaking of

the point system in use. It occurred

to me while witnessing the points

awarding process in the Iron Bunny

event. The system is largely based

on a process of elimination, searching for mistakes. Maybe, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and reverse

it a bit, and base it on a search and

assessment of positives aspects of

a build. I think that perhaps, such

an approach might do much for the

interest and attraction of model

contests. I realise that a criticism

can drive the criticised forward, but

I don’t see this happening so much

in reality. I don’t know of too many

cases, where criticism has led the

criticised into subsequent projects,

that will in turn generate only further criticisms. On the other hand,

I have seen many times where

the criticised has offered sarcastic

thanks, and then proceeded to tell

the judge to kindly take his criticism

and shove it up his …….... (censored). I am beginning to think that the

future of our hobby is not so much

about new kits being offered to beginners, but offering enough praise,

and general positive feedback, to

beginners and advanced modellers

alike. And, by the way, this goes for

reviewers as well. Thank you, boys,

for pushing us forward, but please,

4

eduard

it’s getting tiring. Learn to say something nice. Take it as a chance to

learn something new!

In this newsletter, you’ll find two

articles of note. The first one is

a historical piece titled ‘Friedrich-Karl

Muller’, a Wilde Sau and Mosquito

ace by Neil Page. It is related to night

fighting Wilde Sau missions and to

our new Bf 109G-6/AS. The second

article, or more accurately, report,

comes from Martin Ferkl, and describes the completion of the restoration of the world’s only surviving and

preserved He 219 at the Udvar-Hazy

Centre NASM in Maryland. When we

left Chattanooga this year, we had

a chance to spend an evening at the

centre, witnessing the installation of

the engines into the Uhu, and I gotta

say, what an evening it was!

November’s new items are now

available, including sets for two significant new items, the P-38F/G from

Tamiya in 1:48th, and for Kinetic’s

F-104G in the same scale. For the

Starfighter, we have photoetched

and mask sets, including STEELBELTS

items, and interior and exterior TFace

masks, as for the P-38, add to that

two LooK sets, resin wheels and gun

muzzles. More items can be expected in the coming months, December 2019 and January, 2020. Other

noteworthy November sets include

items for the Me 262A in 1:32nd

scale for the Revell kit. For Czech

modellers, given the recent decision

on the purchase of the AH-1Z for the

Czech Air Force, sets for the Academy kit of this aircraft in 1:35th scale will be attractive. In 1:48th scale,

we have a revitalised set for Tamiya’s

G4M. In 1:35th scale, you’ll find two

sets, ammunition boxes for the Hummel from Tamiya and a set for the

2S35 cannon from Zvezda. In 1:72nd,

we are releasing new sets for the

Lancaster B.Mk.I/III from Airfix, and

in the ship department in 1:350th,

we have completed the second of

two sets for the British heavy cruiser

HMS Cornwall. Noteworthy are also

the new Brassin wheels (P-51D Pointed Cross Tread) and gun bays for our

48th scale P-51, along with two sets

for the MiG-23BN in 1:48th covering

the intakes and exhausts. There are

four new BigEds, including a collection of sets for the Si-204 from Special

Hobby (1:48th). Again, there is only

one new BigSin, the Bf 109G-10/U4

ESSENTIAL in 1:48th.

We have the usual four new kits

for the month. Being released now

is the Bf 1090G-6/AS (ProfiPACK

1:48th) that was originally to be

out in August. This is a kit of an interesting subject with a selection of

some striking marking options. The

Bf 109G-6/AS and Bf 109G-14/AS

were a passionate request of us

expressed on various modelling

forums. In 1:72nd scale, we have

a reboxing of the MiG-15bis, replenishing stock of the same sold out

item in the same line. It’s not really a straight re-pop, though. It has

a new boxart, a new marking selection and a new catalog number. There

is a Weekend Edition kit of the Fokker Dr.I in 1:48th and an F6F-5 Hellcat in the newly conceptualised SUPER44 line, relating, of course, to the

scale of 1:144th. These moulds have

been used by Platz.

There are some interesting new

BFC items as well. There are two publications available, ‘Riders in the Sky,

1944’ (BFC095) and ‘BEDNA MiG-23MF/ML’ (BFC096). A third publication ‘MF/MiG-21 (Second Edition)’

INFO Eduard - November 2019